SARAJEVO, Feb 24 (Hina) - The highest Bosniak officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina have opposed the possibility of NATO withdrawing from the country and the European Union taking over the mission of keeping peace in the country.
SARAJEVO, Feb 24 (Hina) - The highest Bosniak officials in Bosnia-
Herzegovina have opposed the possibility of NATO withdrawing from
the country and the European Union taking over the mission of
keeping peace in the country. #L#
The EU's Commissioner for the Common Security and Defence Policy,
Javier Solana, told the Bosnian Presidency members over the phone
last week the EU was ready to take over the leadership of the peace
mission in the country.
The BH Presidency issued a statement saying that Solana encouraged
the state leadership to start talks which would enable the transfer
of powers from NATO to the EU.
No deadlines have been mentioned so far, but unofficial sources say
that NATO forces in the country could be replaced by the EU in mid-
2004.
BH Presidency member Sulejman Tihic and the Chairman of the Council
of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, said, however, they were not sure that
the EU would be as efficient as NATO, i.e. the Stabilisation Force
(SFOR), in keeping peace.
The Dnevni Avaz daily quoted Tihic as saying he believed the SFOR
should not withdraw "because the situation in the area of the former
Yugoslavia is still unstable and many issues have not been settled
entirely".
Premier Adnan Terzic believes the EU heading the police mission in
the country is sufficient because that segment requires the
adoption of European standards.
"But apart from wishing to join European, Bosnia-Herzegovina also
wants to join Euro-Atlantic integration processes. That is why we
need NATO to be present through the SFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina,"
Terzic said.
Stjepan Pocrnja, secretary-general of the Permanent Commission for
Military Matters, a kind of substitute for the defence ministry,
believes that NATO and the EU would manage to find the best way to
organise the peace forces in the country, to include the United
States.
What Pocrnja did was to indirectly point to the essence of the
problem - the question of whether after more than unpleasant
experiences from the war European countries are considered able to
guarantee security in Bosnia-Herzegovina and whether the US
presence is still necessary as additional insurance.
Although European countries have had the largest number of soldiers
on the ground in the country since 1995, the United States has been
the backbone of the peace mission and the chief commander has always
been an American general or admiral.
Tihic believes that one should wait with changes to the current
peace mission for another two or more years.
He believes that NATO should not withdraw from the country until
Bosnia has a single army and stability in the country becomes
indisputable.
The withdrawal of the SFOR depends on internal relations in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, he says.
(hina) rml